Lawns Without Fossil Fuels: Electric Mowers

The internal combustion engine is cool. It’s loud, it’s got plenty of power, it safely contains and transforms an endless series of little explosions into locomotion, and it’s totally outdated today. I’ll miss it, but we simply must move away from fossil fuels wherever possible, end of discussion. One easy place the everyday Joe can participate in this motion is with his domestic lawnmower.

There are so many electric models available that perform the average job every bit as well as their gasoline-sucking counterparts, we really have no excuse for holding on to the obsolete technology.

One hidden bonus that many old school devotees seem to be unaware of is the dramatic reduction in noise pollution; electric mowers are wildly quieter than gas powered mowers. One of the selling points behind such tools as the Neuton Mower (pictured) is that it’s so quiet you can talk on the phone while using it.

This sucker costs about as much as the same sized option of the liquid fuel variety, runs for a solid hour on a single charge, and it’ll cost you about $5.00 a year to run the thing on the avg. sized lawn once a week. Your old mower drinks that much in gas after two or three runs. Plus, your air will be cleaner. According to the EPA, gas-powered lawnmowers account for up to 5% of US air pollution.

Of course, if you really, really care about the environment, never mind your own fitness, you could always go seriously old school and get a reel mower. Yes, they still make ‘em, and yes, they still work just fine.

NEUTON® Mower [drpower.com]